ARCHIVED - Worst April storms in 50 years as Murcia Easter celebrations are rained off

Over 100 millimetres of rain as flooding disrupts road traffic throughout the Costa Cálida

Sweltering sunshine, sunbathers in public parks and soaring ice-cream sales over Easter weekend as temperatures climbed into the mid-20s: yes, the weather was absolutely marvellous over Easter weekend… in the UK!

In the Costa Cálida, though, conditions were among the worst seen over the holiday weekend in living memory, as the worst April storms for half a century caused the cancellation of almost all of the major processions during the second half of Semana Santa. Heavy rain fell on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in almost all parts of Murcia, with over 100 millimetres in 12 hours being recorded at various locations in the south and centre of the Region and numerous cases of roads becoming impassable and traffic being further disrupted by fallen trees brought down by the strong winds accompanying the storms.

Over 500 calls were made to the 112 emergency services line over the weekend concerning incidents related to the weather, most of them involving fallen trees and brickwork, inundated roads and accidents, and in Sangonera, not far outside the regional capital, a man had to be rescued from his car as it was trapped in the floodwater. In Cobatillas, meanwhile, four people managed to escape from a car after it left the road surface and fell into the irrigation ditch of Azarbe de los Molinos, where it ended up almost totally under water.

In Jumilla winds reached speeds of 90 km/h and over 20 instances of damage and fallen trees were reported, while as is so often the case in episodes of heavy rain the main roads in the northern outskirts of the city of Murcia, such as Avenida Juan de Borbón, Avenida Reino de Murcia and Avenida Juan Carlos I were temporarily closed to all traffic on Saturday.

On the coast, meanwhile, there was considerable damage done to beaches, and in Puerto de Mazarrón the inadequacy of the drainage system in the residential area of Bahía was once again evident as the streets became canals and visitors hoping for an Easter than were instead rewarded with the spectacle of the resort becoming a “mini-Venice”!

Not far away in La Azohía, at the eastern end of the bay of Mazarrón, the Policía Local of Cartagena were called out to rescue a married couple from their motor home at 6.45 on Saturday morning, after they had unwisely parked for the night in the “rambla” (floodwater channel).

Aemet data show that between Friday and Saturday 108 mm of rain fell in the city of Murcia, 116 mm in Cartagena and 110 mm in Yecla, illustrating the generalized nature of one of the wettest spells on record during the month of April in the south-east of Spain!